THE National Railway Museum’s planned new circular Central Hall, which will link the two halves of the museum across Leeman Road, has been inspired by railway turntables, according to a detailed planning application which has now been submitted.

A design and access statement accompanying the application, prepared by Feilden Fowles Architects, says that the proposed hall ‘draws from the history of turntables and the geometrical beauty inherent to roundhouses’.

The hall will feature a gallery showcasing the latest innovations in rail technology, a café overlooking a new museum square, a shop, an event space and new visitor facilities.

It will also include a new ‘Wonderlab’, aimed at inspiring children to think like engineers using interactive exhibits and games.

A first floor balcony running around the inside of the hall will offer views both towards the city centre and across the NRM site itself. "These high level views...will enable the visitor to gain an overview of the historic railway landscape for the first time,” the design and access statement says.

The new hall will aim to ‘provide a compelling welcome and arrival space that connects, rationalises, and integrates the museum … for the first time in its history', it adds.

The central hall will in future operate as the main entrance to the museum. There will be one entry from the new ‘Museum Square’ on what is now Leeman Road next to the Bullnose building, and a second northern entrance on the opposite side of the round hall.

It will be a "multisensory space, inviting movement... and prioritising social interaction as a central meeting point,” the design and access statement says. “The highly theatrical space is intended for further display of collection where possible, with a beautifully engineered roof structure overhead. It is hoped it will excite and stimulate the curiosity of visitors, (and serve as) a base from which to venture through one of five ‘portals’ to explore the vast collection beyond."

The number of cars is likely to increase as visitor numbers increase, the design and access statement concedes. Visitor parking will be in a planned multi storey car park, but museum staff and volunteers will no longer have free on site car parking.

New roads, footpaths and cycle routes installed as part of the wider York Central development, which should be completed before work on the central hall begins, will also make it easier to access the museum on foot or by bicycle, it is hoped.

Once work on these new routes is completed, Leeman Road where it passes between the two halves of the museum will be closed to allow work on the central hall to begin.

The current museum entrance will be demolished, as will the underpass connecting Station Hall and Great Hall and the ‘mess room’, a later extension to the Bullnose building.